1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for delivery of network services, and more specifically to a flexible yet scalable means of dynamically providing a variety of network services to a large subscriber base.
2. Background Art
An increasingly large number of individuals use portable computing devices, such as laptop computers, personal data assistants (PDAs), smart phones and the like, to support mobile communications. The number of computing devices, and the number of networks that these devices connect to, has increased dramatically in recent years. Similarly, an increasing number of wireless Internet access services have been appearing in airports, cafes and book stores.
As telecommunications technology continues to evolve to meet this ever increasing demand, service providers continue to make investments in state-of-the-art technology in order to remain at the forefront of offerings in the marketplace. However, in order to maximize their return on investment, service providers are constantly challenged to more effectively market their technology offerings by offering richer choices to their subscriber base, and to deliver those choices in a timely and seamless fashion.
Traditionally, management of subscriber services has been focused at the connection point by the subscriber to the network. Accordingly, management profiles are created at each and every connection point, with individual profiles generated to support each subscriber, for each service option subscribed to by each subscriber (including combinations of service options), for each access protocol used, and for each access device used by each subscriber in making that network connection. In a typical subscriber situation with rights to a bundled set of network services, a large number of profiles is not uncommon. Complicating these logistical concerns further is that each addition of a new access protocol requires that the entire list of profiles be recreated in support of the new protocol.
As the number of access protocols and complexity of bundled service offerings for each subscriber continue to escalate in the marketplace, the traditional approach of recreation of entire lists of profiles is simply not scalable and therefore inadequate. This problem is particularly exacerbated in scenarios where subscribers can create their own customized bundles of network services.
One approach to dealing with this challenge has been proposed by Alcatel, in their Enhanced Subscriber Management (ESM) product. Such an approach addresses the problem at the network device level, by providing an ability to extract the required network device information from the various access protocols. However, such an approach, while protocol independent, is not vendor independent.
What is needed is an approach whereby the creation and maintenance of the service profiles is independent of both access device and access protocol. Such an approach would greatly simplify the service configuration logistics and allow each service to be managed as a single logical entity, without the need to support additional profiles for each and every access protocol, and each and every access device. In the ideal approach, an access device or an access protocol could be changed for a given subscriber without the impediment of the effort to re-create or update all profiles that are impacted by such a change. Finally, it is desirable that the current practice of creating a multitude of profiles to support bundled services be replaced by a simplified approach that requires only the definition of the individual services, but not the additional profile definitions for all possible bundled combinations of those individual services.